


But the Sound of Thunder

by tatooedlaura



Series: Life, Part 3 [28]
Category: The X-Files
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 07:01:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14612226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatooedlaura/pseuds/tatooedlaura
Summary: Now Mulder can come home and not have to worry about getting that done.





	But the Sound of Thunder

She stopped speaking in polite tones, politically correct structures with balanced beliefs and round-edged arguments to make her point but maintain an even strain. Barked instructions were given, regardless of rank and serial number, mind three steps ahead and two behind, lacking time and energy for present feelings and future needs.

Maggie was the only one who could get her to shut her eyes, lay down for longer than five minutes, behind closed doors, daughter’s head nestled in mother’s neck, both praying and cursing their God in tandem beats. Skinner ran things from the kitchen table, refusing to leave the house, his house, his wife, his daughter, unprotected. He finally fell asleep there, two days later, around 4am, while Frohike still plugged away, stretching the limits of knowledge and friends, acquaintances, ‘I’ve heard of yous’ and ‘let’s give them a try’s’, recruiting people he may have met 10 years ago in passing for 8 seconds at a trade show, exchanging favors and, diligent little geek that he was, keeping a running list of paybacks for eventual times.

Byers microslept standing at the sink, doing his self-imposed every ten-minute scan of the backyard for anything out of the ordinary while Langley, his body used to being fueled by Pay Day bars, caffeine, and a brain that wouldn’t quit, sat wide awake and determined, a pillow under his butt because his tailbone could only take so much of that kitchen chair.

The agents assigned to look for Mulder didn’t really grasp the enormity of the situation but gave it their all anyway, even as Scully, fire in her glare, ripped them apart for missing the briefest of Mulder glimpse in a casino in Las Vegas, Krycek behind, both walking casually away from the camera, there to gamble, there to loosen up, there to do what Krycek wanted with Mulder forced to follow.

“But Agent Scully, he’s not being held at gunpoint, he’s in a crowded place and it’s a shot of the back of his head. There’s no way we would have known it was him.”

“I know my husband and I know Alex Krycek.” She slid the computer back in front of her own eyes, “go do something else.”

“Do you … want us to go get him?” They still believed the whole situation a wild goose chase but boss’ orders were to be followed, “although this footage is from early this morning.”

“Go. Away.”

Skinner took over then, ordering Scully, in a tone he might just pay for later on, to go lay down before he locked her in the closet.

&&&&&&&

Downtown L.A. at Grauman’s Chinese Theater … a camera in an out of the way corner at the entrance to the San Diego Zoo … security footage from Willis Tower in Chicago … a hang-up from Mulder’s phone traced to Witchita, Kansas.

Mulder turned his head once, looking directly at the camera for a hanging moment in time and Scully’s heart thudded so hard, she rocked in place, swaying forward, two inches closer to him than she’d been in a week, hand automatically to belly, baby kicking hard at the sudden loud noise of rushing blood in its mother’s veins.

“Look at him.” Her voice was low, countering the pounding in her ear, “look at him. He knows what’s happening.”

Maggie, holding Scully’s hand before realizing, “what do you mean?”

Scully’s eyes were glued to the frozen frame, Mulder’s pleading look, “when they made me go to that bridge, that night, that …” she didn’t talk about it to anyone, the hole in her memory nearly as mind-cracking as her missing three months, “I didn’t know what was happening. I wasn’t aware of the drive or the fire. I woke up with absolutely no idea but Mulder,” gently touching the screen near Mulder’s cheek, “he knows. He knows what’s going on.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s the same look he gave me when we were in that room with Modell.” Finally looking away from Mulder to find her boss standing behind her mother, “he’s fighting it and he knows he needs to fight it.” Tears finally shining her eyes, nose turning red, cheeks white, “he can’t do this for very much longer.”

Skinner, in a move he didn’t use often, leaned over, kissing her lightly on the forehead, “we’ll find him.”

&&&&&&&

She lost several pounds in a matter of days, eating only when threatened by Maggie; she showered only for the momentary change of scenery and returned to their apartment a week later, a month later, time lost in passing, because if she stayed in the house a moment longer, she would scream.

Frohike and Byers stayed at the bottom of the stairs after they searched the place, finding everything as it should be. Scully, for her part, stood in silence in the half-finished room of their unborn child for several minutes before sitting down in the corner and bawling her eyes out, sobs echoing, carrying to the mortified pair keeping watch. “Should we go see if she’s all right?”

Byers shook his head, “we wait.”

After she quieted herself down and cried until she couldn’t breathe, she stood, turned, moved to the top of the stairs, “boys? You awake?”

Frohike wasn’t but the sound of her voice roused him, “yeah, yeah, you okay?”

“I need some more painters tape.”

It was nine-thirty on a Tuesday night, so she must have flipped, “what?”

“I want to finish the baby’s room before Mulder gets back. We only had the trim left and the closet to paint.”

Still standing at the bottom of the stairs, “should I call Maggie?”

“She’ll tell me to sit down so no.”

“I need to at least let them know we won’t be back for awhile and that you’re okay.”

“Whatever. Can someone get me some tape please?”

The room was done by midnight and smelly, even with fans on and window open but once the ultrasound pictures were returned to the wall, Scully stood back, nodded her head, “thank you. Now Mulder can come home and not have to worry about getting that done.”

She then curled forward, clutched her belly, silent as she pitched to the ground, landing with a thump on her side, legs wet with clear liquid and a tinge of blood.


End file.
